Providence Bruins Preview: Get Back to Winning

The Providence Bruins (7-5-0-2) lost on Friday night to the Norfolk Admirals after four first period goals were insurmountable against Admirals goaltender John Gibson. Niklas Svedberg allowed four goals on 20 shots in the opening frame, and although he was kept in net for the rest of the game and didn't allow in another goal, Providence fell short in the 4-3 loss.

The slow start has been characteristic of many of the P-Bruins losses this season, but the team has shown the ability to remedy the problem and will look to rebound with a win against divisional rival (and Phoenix Coyotes AHL affiliate) Portland Pirates (5-5-0-2) on Sunday afternoon in Providence.

P-Bruins vs Pirates, 3pm EST

- Second of 10 meetings this season. Providence won first meeting on October 12 5-2 in Portland.

- Providence: Third in Atlantic Division, 10th in Eastern Conference; Portland: Fourth in Atlantic, 13th in Eastern Conference

- Portland is 3-0-0-1 in their last four games

- Providence is 3-3-0-1 at home; Portland is 3-1-0-0 on the road

- Providence has a goal differential of +4 (52 FA, 48 GA); Portland has an even goal differential (34 GA/GA)

Special teams

- Providence is fourth on the power play (24.2%); Portland is 18th (16.1%)

- Providence is 30th on the penalty kill (72.3); Portland is seventh (85.7%)

- Providence has gone two straight games without allowing a power play goal against for the first time this season

Lineups

Fallstrom will sit out and Griffith will get back into the lineup after being a healthy scratch for the last two games. Lindblad will move to center the third line and Griffith will play left wing on the second line.

Providence forward lines

1) Matt Fraser – Ryan Spooner – Craig Cunningham

2) Seth Griffith – Carter Camper – Nick Johnson

3) Justin Florek – Matt Lindblad – Bobby Robins

4) Anthony Camara – Alexander Khokhlachev – Jared Knight

Providence defense pairings

- Joe Morrow – Kevan Miller

- David Warsofsky – Chris Casto

- Mike Moore – Ben Youds

Providence scratches

- Tommy Cross, Rob Flick, Tyler Randell, Alexander Fallstrom, Zach Trotman (hand)

Portland forward lines

1) Brandon McMillan – Andy Miele – Chris Brown

2) Tobias Rieder – Tim Kennedy – Brandon Yip

3) Lucas Lessio – Jordan Martinook – Gilbert Brule

4) Kyle Hagel – Ethan Werek (if Brendan Shinnimin can’t go after warm-ups) – Brett Hextall

Portland defense pairings

- Brandon Gormley – Human Garbage Randy Jones

- Chris Summers – Mathieu Brisebois

- Mathieu Brodeur – Mark Louis

Portland scratches

- Daine Todd (broken nose), James Melindy (lower body), Phil Lane (upper body), Darian Dziurzynski (healthy scratch), Mark Visentin

Goaltending matchup

- Malcolm Subban: 6GP, 2-3-0, 2.48 GAA, .913 SV%. Subban looks to extend his winning streak to three games.

- Louis Domingue: 2 GP, 0-0-0, 1.89 GAA, .933 SV%.

Other Notes

- Ryan Spooner has nine points in his last four games.

- Joe Morrow looks to extend his point streak to five games (currently has five points in four games).

- This is half-assed because I'm short on time. Game starts soon okay bye.